CapeTalk Highlights

Land reform can work. It’s worked very well, if you look at East Asian examples…

— Professor Ruth Hall, University of the Western Cape

60% of South Africa is urbanised… the big demand is for well-located urban plots…

— Professor Ruth Hall, University of the Western Cape

Is the Constitution the problem…? It’s never been an impediment to land reform… It provides a mandate for transformation… It says to the State, ‘you must redistribute land’… The ruling party has never taken the land issue seriously…

— Professor Ruth Hall, University of the Western Cape

Land reform has regressed under the ANC-led government over the past 24 years.

This is according to research done by the Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (Plaas) at the University of the Western Cape.

"We are not only reproducing the inequalities and divides of apartheid, in some cases, we are actually deepening them," said Prof Ben Cousins of Plaas.

"In Section 25 of the Bill of Rights and the property clause there is a mandate of transformation and that has not been met."

Listen to the interview in the audio below (and/or scroll down for more quotes from it).

Land reform is a lens through which we can overcome spatial apartheid.

— Professor Ruth Hall, University of the Western Cape

People have a historical claim to the land… Our entire society is based on dispossession… As a white South African you have been a beneficiary… We need to clarify the history, and engage in a very honest debate…

— Professor Ruth Hall, University of the Western Cape

A year ago the ANC voted against a proposal to amend the Constitution… Now we’ve seen… the ANC has agreed with the EFF… There’s a false image that there is an agreement… The EFF’s view… is nationalisation of land… The ANC’s view… is that the State should have a variety of mechanisms at its disposal…

— Professor Ruth Hall, University of the Western Cape

Expropriation of land is essential in our society… We need a mechanism for breaking deadlock…

— Professor Ruth Hall, University of the Western Cape

The ANC has never used its existing powers…

— Professor Ruth Hall, University of the Western Cape

A lot of wealth has migrated off the land…

— Professor Ruth Hall, University of the Western Cape

Most farmland debt is held by the Big Four banks… They are concerned… I think they’re on the back foot…

— Professor Ruth Hall, University of the Western Cape

The EFF got as far as slogans, and no further.

— Professor Ruth Hall, University of the Western Cape

Restoring the land doesn’t necessarily restore the wealth… Restoring the land is a symbol… but by itself it’s not going to put anything right.